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All posts in category Cancer

Prostate cancer hits one in six American men in their lifetimes, though in most cases it progresses so slowly that it would never cause problems. PSA tests can give an early warning of prostate cancer. But PSA tests also give many false alarms, prompting more than one million unnecessary biopsies every year. And when prostate cancer is found, more than 80% of men opt to have surgery, radiation or hormone therapy that sometimes leaves them incontinent or impotent, even though their cancer was probably never life-threatening.

FDA Unveils Painkiller-Safety Plan (WSJ): The makers of extended-release painkillers must fund educational courses for doctors and provide safety information to patients, the Obama administration said Monday, in a move it hopes will reduce misuse of the drugs and overdose deaths.

Sitting for Hours a Day Cuts Lifespan (WSJ): Sitting down for more than three hours a day can shave a person’s life expectancy by two years, even if he or she is physically active and refrains from dangerous habits like smoking, according to a study to be published in the online journal BMJ Open.

This morning’s health news ranges from the ramifications of a Supreme Court decision on the 2010 health overhaul to the rising influence of pharmacists and the loss of valuable tissue used in autism research.

Here’s what’s making health news this morning: Chest Radiation for Girls Is Linked to Breast Cancer Later (WSJ): Women who survived childhood cancer in the 1970s and 1980s and received chest radiation as part of the treatment have a risk of developing breast cancer later in life comparable to women with a high genetic risk of disease, study finds. Gene Therapy Gains vs. Cancer(WSJ): Two targeted therapies used in patients with advanced melanoma kept the disease from progressing longer than treatment for patients who received chemotherapy, bolstering the prospect that developing drugs to target a cancer’s genetic driver will lead to better outcomes…

Sugar Ban Stirs Up New York(WSJ): As public-health officials praised New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to ban the sale of large-size drinks in restaurants and other locations, some academics and business groups called the plan an ineffective way to handle the obesity crisis and criticized it as government overreach.

Sex Selection Is New Front in Abortion Battle (WSJ): Republicans called a House vote on legislation to ban abortions conducted for the purposes of sex selection, but the bill, which would punish doctors who perform sex-selection abortions, failed to pass the House.

Lung Cancer CT Scans: Just for Older Smokers (AP): New lung-cancer screening guidelines from three medical groups recommend annual scans but only for an older group of current or former heavy smokers. The advice applies only to those aged 55 to 74 because the risks of screening younger or older smokers or nonsmokers outweigh any benefits, according to the guidelines.

Data Trove May Shed Light on Health Care Uncertainties (Washington Post): Compiled by the non-profit, non-partisan Health Care Cost Institute, the database will allow researchers to slice and dice more than 3 billion medical claims for more than 33 million individuals in search of answers.

Websites Use DNA to Create Family Trees (WSJ): Detailed maps of the human genome have become less expensive, and they’re going social, enabling users to build personal online networks that become more useful as more people sign up. Ancestry.com, a genealogy website with about 1.9 million subscribers, rolled out a $99 DNA service that lets users compare points on their own genome with others.

Making Gene Mapping Part of Everyday Care (WSJ): The cost of mapping a person’s full genetic profile has been dropping quickly. Now, doctors are struggling with a new question: how to use the information to improve people’s health.

The recent news that a counterfeit cancer drug, Avastin, was found in the U.S. has renewed fears about the integrity of our drug supply. It’s also rekindled concerns about Internet pharmacies selling prescription medicines to patients looking for lower prices.

Should we be so worried? Yes and no, at least according to one study….

Penalties for selling fake medicines would double if a bill passed last night by the U.S. Senate becomes law. The counterfeiting bill, which has not passed the House of Representatives, would boost the maximum penalty for importing and marketing forged drugs in the U.S. from 10 years of imprisonment and a $2 million fine for individuals to $4 million and 20 years behind bars. Companies implicated in counterfeiting crimes could face steeper fines …

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to revoke approval of Roche’s Avastin for advanced breast cancer is likely to curtail use of the $6 billion-a-year drug for such patients. But it’s not likely to put an end to prescribing. Today’s action doesn’t affect the drug’s other approved uses, which include certain types of colon, lung, kidney and brain cancers, the FDA said. And physicians are free to prescribe an approved drug for any use they see fit.

Supplement Findings:Research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds older women who took multivitamins and most other dietary supplements were slightly more likely to die than those who didn’t, the WSJ reports. Calcium supplements, however, were linked to a slightly lower risk of death among the nearly 39,000 women who participated in the study, the paper says. One outside expert notes that the study didn’t look at debilitating conditions that supplements might ameliorate, and that if a physician recommends specific vitamins or minerals for a medical reason it’s a good idea to listen …

New Recommendation Coming: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will recommend against screening healthy men for prostate cancer using the PSA blood test, giving the test a rating indicating its harms outweigh its benefits, the WSJ reports, citing a person familiar with the draft document. Prostate-cancer screening for men without symptoms has long been controversial given the high rate of false positive findings and the identification of tumors that never would have been a threat to a man’s health, though advocates of testing say it can find cancers early, when they’re more treatable. CNN first reported the USPSTF’s decision …

Germany’s Merck forecasts little or no improvement in earnings this year, with stiff competition for its blockbuster multiple-sclerosis treatment and higher research spending likely to offset the impact of recent acquisitions.